This seems much more organized than in years past, which is probably explained by the fact that, though this is the 8th year of BFF, it’s only the third year it’s played in Minneapolis.

So what the heck is a Bicycle Film Festival, anyway?

The Bicycle Film Festival celebrates the bicycle. We are into all styles of bikes and biking. If you can name it-Tall Bike Jousting, Track Bikes, BMX, Alleycats, Critical Mass, Bike Polo, Cycling to Recumbents- we’ve probably either ridden or screened it. What better way to celebrate these lifestyles than through art, film, music and performance? We bring together all aspects of bicycling together to advocate its ability to transport us in many ways. Ultimately the Fest is about having a good time.

Films will screen at eight different venues across Minneapolis, from Pi to First Avenue to the MacPhail Center. There is free valet bicycle parking at each one. You can buy a festival pass or tickets to individual shows. Complete details at bicyclefilmfestival.com.

(Biking from venue to venue is also good practice for Fringe.)

My friend Autumn happened across a film crew in Northeast Minneapolis last week. Here’s her account of what she saw.

The film is called “Nobody” and it’s being written and directed by Rob Perez, who wrote 40 Days and 40 Nights. He moved here to shoot the film, apparently. It’s about an artist trying to find inspiration while attending art school. The lead is a guy named Sam Rosen, apparently a friend of Josh Hartnett. The film is being produced by someone named Christine Walker, who we saw yesterday on the set.

The film is supposedly a “low budget indie film” but as someone Tiffany works with pointed out, low budget these days just means it costs less than 50 million dollars. On site yesterday were several rental trucks, a couple of semis, a trailer or two, a giant pile of snow, and lots of Prius’ and SUVs lining the surrounding streets with city obstruction permits on their windshields.

There was quite a large crew. Camera men, site techs, costume people, interns shoveling snow into a wheelbarrow and wheeling it over to the bus stop, and kids in orange vests making sure no one ran over the crew as they crossed back and forth on the street. It was windy out, so it was even one girl’s job to hold up the corner poll of a rented tent over the director, so that it didn’t blow over. They took over an entire office building, two blocks for crew parking, a small stretch of road, and the church across the street, which they were using as a home base for bathrooms and crew lunches.

More from the set of the movie “Nobody”

Stop the ReRoute: taking a stand on sacred land will show at the Riverview Theater at 7pm on Thursday, May 22.

Stope the ReRoute tells the dramatic story of a community’s opposition to the State of Minnesota’s plan to drive a road through its birthplace, Camp Coldwater between Minnehaha Park and Fort Snelling - land considered historic to some and sacred to others. This inspiring film bears witness to the commitment of citizen activists to live lightly on Grandmother Earth, preserve precious natural resources, and resist car culture at the end of the Petroleum Age, as neighborhood and environmental champions, Native American activists, and young people coalesce in nonviolent civil disobedience.

Cost is $10. Doors open at 6pm, there’s “entertainment” at 6:30, and then the film screening will be followed by “honoring of activitists” and Q&A with the film’s producers.

I’m not sure if the Preserve Camp Coldwater Coalition is at all affiliated with the folks who made the documentary. A pagan activist person I know suggested that there’s not complete alignment between different groups with interest in preserving the land.

I attended a winter solstice celebration at Coldwater Spring last year.

More about Coldwater Spring